Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 10:47:38 -0400
From: Gabo3@aol.com
New York Newsday - Thursday, April 20, 1995
A DALLAS BOARD CASTS A DEADLY VOTE
by Gabriel Rotello
New York - Conservatives sometimes bristle when activists accuse them of
genocide against those at greatest risk for AIDS - gay men, IV drug users and
their sexual partners and children. They call such accusations hyperbole, exag
geration, paranoia. AIDS, they say, is a viral disease spread by behavior,
and as such it cannot compare to the deliberate evils of mass murder.
Perhaps. But consider the case of Dallas, Texas. Several years ago, with the
disease spreading catastrophically through its large gay male community and
among its IV drug users, Dallas ranked 9th in the nation in number of AIDS
cases. Then local health officials got serious. Using mostly federal funds,
they began distributing 10,000 condoms a month at health clinics and AIDS
outreach programs, and handing out hundreds of needle sterilization kits to
IV drug users. Conservatives initially argued that the sterilization kits
encouraged drug use, but as time passed no one could find a speck of evidence
that drug use increased under the program. And not even the most ardent
homophobes ever seriously argued that homosexuality would increase because of
condom availability.
Two things did increase, however. Condom use and needle sterilization. And
not surprisingly, new HIV infections dropped dramatically. It was a classic
case of public health doing what public health is supposed to do, preventing
preventable disease. Eventually Dallas dropped from 9th in the nation to 20th
in total AIDS cases, one of the great success stories in prevention.
Until now, that is. Last month the Dallas County Commissioners voted 4 to 1
to end the programs, arguing that they subsidize illegal and immoral
behavior. The commissioners believe that prevention programs should insist on
drug-free living and sexual abstinence or monogamy as the only proper ways to
fight AIDS. According to local health officials, the vote ends effective AIDS
prevention in Dallas. Health workers are no longer even allowed to hand out
their literature, since the commissioners have deemed it too explicit.
Will all this result in less drug use or sexual activity? Hardly. The commiss
ioners don't even bother making that argument. Will it result in rising HIV
infections, followed by rising AIDS cases, greater suffering and death among
gay men, IV drug users and their sexual partners and children? And, in the
end, fewer such people? You bet.
Is that active genocide, on a par with ethnic cleansing, or butchering
villagers with machetes? Not really. But do things have to be that active,
that deliberate, to be considered genocide? Again, not really. Letting people
die by walking away from a serious accident isn't precisely the same thing as
shooting them, but it's still a crime. Withholding treatment from bedridden
patients against their will isn't precisely the same as giving them lethal
injections, but it's still considered murder. So why isn't allowing whole
groups of people to become infected with a deadly disease when you could,
with minimal public effort, prevent that, also genocide? Even though it's not
precisely the same thing as active, government sponsored execution?
My dictionary defines genocide as the systematic, planned extermination of
national, racial, political or ethnic groups. In short, others. AIDS is still
seen by lots of Americans, obviously including the commissioners of Dallas
County and their conservative ideological cousins around the country, as a
disease of others. Gays. Blacks. Junkies. Latinos. The poor. People they
wouldn't mind seeing fewer of. Conveniently for them, in this case they don't
need machetes or machine guns to do the job. They can just systematically
withhold help, deliberately cancel prevention programs, walk away from the
scene and let a virus do its - their - dirty work.
That, not condom availability or needle sterilization, is truly immoral.
Let's not make it even more immoral by neglecting to call it what it is.
Genocide. Passive, maybe. But no less deadly.
(Gabriel Rotello's column appears in New York Newsday every Thursday. His
email address is Gabo3@aol.com)